Mary Poppins will be celebrated in a special telecast on ABC, Stitch Kingdom reports.
Airing Saturday, December 12, at 8 p.m., The Wonderful World of Disney makes its triumphant return to the network for the first time since 2012. Dick Van Dyke will host a screening of the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins as he guides viewers through backstage glimpses of the film straight from the Disney Archives. He’ll get some help from Bullseye, the mascot for Target, as the store sponsors the evening.
This is the fourth similarly-styled broadcast from ABC this month as it devotes much of its programming to celebrating time-honored family films. The Charlie Brown 50th anniversary special aired earlier this week, and still to come is Toy Story 20th Anniversary Special (Thursday, December 10, 8 p.m., followed by a screening of Toy Story) and Behind the Magic: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Sunday, December 13, 8 p.m.). It’s surprising yet welcoming to see ABC fuel so much energy into broadcasts like this. Hopefully it’s a sign of more to come.
The Wonderful World of Disney is an ever-evolving television tradition, dating back to 1954 when Walt Disney unveiled his plans for Disneyland on air. It has always provided a family-friendly glimpse behind Disney’s treasured library of films, characters, and properties, usually accompanied with behind-the-scenes tours from talent familiar to the Disney stable. Originally a fully produced weekly broadcast, the anthology later changed its format to simply screening Disney films and having guest hosts share backstage secrets during commercial breaks. Eventually getting reduced to only airing during the summer months, the program now appears sporadically with less consistency. The most recent broadcast was in 2012, hosted by Larry the Cable Guy just as Cars Land opened in Disney California Adventure.
Will you watch ‘The Wonderful World of Disney’ on December 12th? What would you like to see featured next on ABC?
Edited by: Kelly Conley
